| Machiara |
| 1 person marked this as FAQ candidate. |
Hi all,
Okay, Energy Body from the Oracle's Life Mystery says the following:
"Any undead creature striking you with its body or a handheld weapon deals normal damage, but at the same time the attacker takes 1d6 points of positive energy damage + 1 point per oracle level. Creatures wielding melee weapons with reach are not subject to this damage if they attack you. If you grapple or attack an undead creature using unarmed strikes or natural weapons, you may deal this damage in place of the normal damage for the attack."
My question is whether undead would take this damage from grappling or constricting an oracle in Energy Body. I think the key here might be the word "striking." It seems like the undead creature needs to "strike" oracle to take the damage. A grapple is really kind of an unwanted hug, and a constrict is a really tight unwanted hug. I wouldn't classify either of those as a "strike," which is hitting something in a forceful way.
Also, if Energy Body automatically did damage during a grapple, you would think that it would be in addition to whatever damage the oracle caused (or even if the oracle did not do any damage, which is pretty standard when grappling). Instead the oracle may choose to do Energy Body damage when she would otherwise inflict damage during a grapple.
This language and the "strike" language seem to make it clear that a standard grapple doesn't provoke energy-body damage. That said, I think an argument can be made that causing constrict damage does provoke energy-body damage, even though it is not technically a "strike." It just makes sense to me and honestly I'm thinking about just saying that's the way it is even though the language of the rules seem to point in the other direction.
Does anyone else have any thoughts on this issue?